Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Another Notts talent, Anex has been carving a steady path over the last year with tunes being picked up by M.U.D and Deep Heads. His music is laid back, but consciously avoids crossing into banal territory by choice sampling and immaculately clean synths. This EP, delivered after hitting the 1000 followers mark over on Facebook, is a showcase of the variation in his styles: not easily bracketed by genre delineation, yet held together by that rarity of a 'signature sound'. 'Real' steps lightly with a nod to the dubwise root; 'Province' is more tense, lulling back and forth on a textured synth; 'Occam's Razor' works a jazz piano through the loops; and his rework of another rising talent, Vaun's 'Comatose', doubles up the half-step pattern with organ stabs and a rolling vocal sample.

Sunday, 28 October 2012

Fornax and Content are two producers who've been lurking on the Hedmuk radar for a little while, and with a combination of their respectively organic and tech-y styles as FNC it was about time to get them on the line for an interview and to have them contribute a mix (their very first under the new moniker, no less) to our exclusive series. And it is that combination of styles which is so appealing; take, for example, the music made by Pinch and Distance as Deleted Scenes: each producer has their own clearly-established sound, and yet the combination doesn't sound like an uneasy mesh of textures but rather something refreshing and of itself. Gaining pace so quickly, and with collaborations with the likes of Razor Rekta and DCult in the works, we're looking forward to see where the duo will evolve to next.

Hedmuk: To introduce yourselves to those who don't know, what are your names, where do you come from and how would you each describe the music you make as FNC?

Fornax: My name's Aaron aka Fornax.

Content: My name's Tony aka Content. The music I guess I will let Fornax describe...

F: Magical

C: Right! That sums that up, then.

F: No seriously, we tend to make [music at] 140bpm and we have a strong emphasis on drums and percussion.

C: Well we got there in the end - there was at least 30 minutes work and this was the best answer we could come up with (laughs).

H: How did you both first get into making beats? Have you found that you are approaching production from a similar angle, or do you benefit from differing in this area?

C: I started 2 years ago, working with Benton under the Organics alias. He showed me everything I could need to know at that stage, I guess. I didn't really get into writing beats on my own until September last year, when I got back from Outlook.

F: I guess I started over 2 years ago: I watched a video about a KORG Electribe. I bought that...wish I still had it. Then I guess that opened the door to electronic music production; that got me asking questions around how other sounds were made. I didn't really know what to do at that point or what genre I wanted to make. I joined Uni doing Music Production, but I only started making dubstep around December 2011 -

C: - Before Fornax starts with all the geek squad shit; we totally approached it from different angles at the beginning. He's all about colours and things being in the right place, and I just like to get the idea down. But this has completely changed in the last month

F: I've turned him: he works my way now.

C: True.

F: Our styles still differ, but we do work off the same platform now.

H: How did the FNC project come about and how do you go about working on the tunes together? Do you prefer to work on developing stems independently or get into the studio together?

F: Basically Content was badgering me, messaging me for a couple of months and eventually I gave in (laughs) and we worked on what became 'Opticks'.

C: At the time I just wanted to do a collab, but we worked well together: that tune ['Opticks'] was done in 8 hours max. After the initial plays of 'Opticks' on J:Kenzo's Daily Dose of Dubstep show, and because the ideas were flowing so easily, we just never stopped. Eventually we just settled on FNC as a name.

F: Mainly because we couldn't think of a better name.

C: Besides, like, Boys Brigade or something overly camp.

FNC: We bounce ideas off each other, we talk about what type of tune we want to write (the type of sound we are after) and then we usually take it in turns to start a project. We just bounce it back and forth via Dropbox. We've only actually met once and that was to make 'Apraxia'.

C: Ideally we would prefer to be in the studio together more, but due to living a few hours apart this isn't always possible. If we got a bigger project on the go, like and album or something, I think one of us would have to relocate - i.e. Fornax! (laughs).

H: Since you've both also working hard on your own individual productions, as Content and Fornax respectively, how do you go about deciding which ideas to continue with on your own and what to use as material to collaborate on as a duo?

C: I guess we have kind of stopped individual work at the moment.

F: We do have the odd bits that we are doing, like I have a remix coming up to do and will have to fit that in when I can.

C: We don't start a track that we don't finish, mainly because we always discuss the idea and the concept behind what we want to make next.

H: Your tunes have been picked up by a number of big players recently, including the likes of Plastician, N-Type and Joe Nice; how does it feel to have your music spread to such a wide and varied audience? And do you feel that this puts pressure on you or challenges you to progress with your productions?

F: Content was taking the piss out of me because I got excited about someone following me on Twitter a few weeks back. So to be played by some of these guys is humbling.

C: Fornax has covered it there: humbling. I don't think it puts any extra pressure on us, but I would say it challenges us.

F: We have been focussing on improving our production techniques and we have really upped out work rate to try and give us an edge.

H: Take us through how you went about putting together the mix you've done for us.

C: When we sat and discussed what we were going to do, we both clearly wanted to use this as a showcase of our sound, so we took a couple of weeks to make some new music that people hadn't heard.

F: We just wanted to put across the sound we're creating as well, as include some artists who inspire us.

C: I said I wasn't going to mix it as I am already known for my DJing, so I thought I'd slap this one in Fornax's lap! He did a grand job.

F: Content would have just spent all day crying about what key things were in anyway (laughs).

H: Finally, are there any forthcomings or anything in the pipeline you'd like to put the word out on? Can we expect to see FNC appearing on flyers in the near future?

F: We are in talks about releases, but we haven't as yet agreed tracks and put names on paper.

C: We don't really want to release music just for the sake of releasing music: it's got to be right for the sound.

F: We have got a track featuring on the next Dubstep Allstars, though, so that's one milestone we can shout about. DJing-wise, it's something we feel we are now ready to take on; we held off on a couple of bookings as we wanted to make sure we had the material to showcase FNC not just 'F' or 'C'.

C: If you are interested in booking us you can do it via the email FNCdubstep@gmail.com or get in touch with one of us via Twitter.

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Legend4ry, one of the most consistently musical producers to have emerged through the dubstep quagmire of the last six years, is calling it a day. Feeling disillusioned with the direction the scene has taken, he has reiterated his discomfort at the way in which the balance has tipped, over the years, in favour of a sound that has lost touch with its roots in music. The man behind the moniker, though, as thankfully not fallen out with music itself and will continue writing music with which the JustAnotherAlias Soundcloud page will be kept updated.

Clearly here the important word is 'music', and as might be expected this parting gift of the album that didn't quite make it out as intended is a showcase of the South London producer's talents when it comes to apparently effortless blends of rhythm and melody. Opener 'The City Speaks But No One Listens' sets the agenda, and the standard, with vocals from Legend4ry himself wrapped in a vast string set. More vocal cuts follow, with LisaDB drifting over the blissed-out 'Sleep Lightly' and Colin Mulcher eulogising modern life on 'Drugs Of Choice'.

Not simply a random collection of tunes, there's a pace to this album which begins to pick up with the quick-stepping, sundown synths of 'Dream (One Can)' and the full-on break workouts of 'Escapade' and 'The Depths', which drip with nostalgia. 'Detrimental', though, reels it in with big kicks, a perfectly round bassline, inward-sounding cymbals and a plucked melody raining over the top. The second drop is a subtle nod to the tune's own effective simplicity. 'Man Up!!' and 'Clint Eastwood' (two phrases you won't often see put next to each other) are an extension of this exercise in simplicity: syncopated rhythms intricately woven with rumbling basslines and eery top-ends, so that the casual listener's head is bobbing before they've realised why.

'Troubling Sounds' is about as close as the album gets to the popular definition of 'dubstep', and is almost immediately offset by the more experimental, euphoric house vibes of 'Transitional Period' and 'Dynra'. 'Wandering' continues this trend, stripping back the four-by-four rhythms in favour of a sound reminiscent of early Anti-Social. 'Remembering' forms a breakbeat close, fading out into a final note from the author over proto-drum & bass riffing on 'Confessions Of Life'.

As a legacy, fans and followers of Legend4ry couldn't really have hoped for much more from this, his final output. Head down the page to download the album.

You can catch Legend4ry's final set down at Cable in London tomorrow night for the MindStep showcase at SubDub; more information, including how to buy tickets, can be found here.

Fitting, then, that Fable, a producer who understands better than many the importance of space in a beat, should take on these acapellas for a revamp. In something of a follow-up to the DEM Recordings project which first surfaced around this time last year, 'Do It' is dubstep's mellow take on the rapid flips of 8-bar grime; rotating between an airy synth, hi-hat and vocal and an equally stripped-down pure beats and bass combination. 'Let's Get Busy' takes a similar approach but relies more on its synth for groove, though the warm bassline is still there and the drums are an almost minimal presence. Reminiscent of Wiley's legendary drumless 'Devil Mixes', the tune flows effortlessly with the looped synth and MIK's vocal forming the brunt of the driving force.

With grime having suffered somewhat at the hands of mid-range-driven dubstep, it's refreshing to hear them both reduced to their bare, and arguably most-effective, components.

Sunday, 21 October 2012

It's not often that a clubnight reaches its sixth birthday, less so a clubnight which has been running weekly and on Monday nights; such is the staying power of Manchester stalwart Hit&Run. Whilst the name may have changed over the years, and the venues too, the core concerns of quality music and sound have remained an unerring constant. What's more, is that a ticket will rarely set you back more than the price of a box of cigarettes.

So celebrating in the same vein, the 6th Birthday offers a stellar lineup for a mere 6 (no coincidence there) pounds: Zed Bias, Fallacy and Rodney P combining under the Sleepin' Giants moniker; dBridge and Marcus Intalex going back-to-back for an extended three hour set; and Om Unit and Kahn will both be demonstrating why they're considered to be among the most original and exciting artists working in electronic music at the moment. Support comes from the inimitable Hit&Run residents, who know better than most how to throw a party.

For more information on the event, including how to purchase cheaper advance tickets, head over the event page here or buy your tickets direct from Skiddle here.

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Like the opposite of a grime MC announcing on every set that their new mixtape is 'out soon', the last two free download releases in Skream's much-loved 'Freeizm' series have been announced as the last and yet more continue to surface. The occasion for this latest offering is the Croydon producer's reaching 100,000 followers on Twitter, and features eleven tracks all made between 2006 and 2009 - arguably one of dubstep's most fruitful periods.

Thursday, 11 October 2012

It doesn't seem like anywhere near as long as a year since we announced the very first release on Innamind Recordings, but over the past eleven months the label has delivered an increasingly-impressive and challenging series of releases and this summer stamped it's iconic kaleidoscopic artwork on its first vinyl record. The latestt 10" from the imprint features two standout cuts from the North-West, with Catacombs and Knowledge teaming up for the 'Exodus' on the A-side - a hefty stepper, moving with old-school Oriental sampling that's been receiving regular rotation from the likes of Biome - and Catacombs' solo joint 'Organism', a grizzled favourite of Rinse FM legend N-Type, occupying the flip-side. The digital release will also feature, much to the delight of any followers of Catacombs' progress no doubt, 'East' as an exclusive third track.

In anticipation of this release we've once again linked up with Innamind, this time to offer the chance to win one of the super-limited Test Presses of vinyl release number two. To be in with a chance of winning, simply send your answer to this question to hedmuk@gmail.com with the subject 'Catacombs Competition':

How many releases to date - including singles, EPs, compilations and vinyl - has Innamind Recordings put out?

The competition will close on the 19th of October, on which date the winner will be chosen by an independent third party and announced on Facebook and Twitter, as well as via email.

But it doesn't end there, we've also got hold of a mix from the man Catacombs himself to accompany the release: stacked with dubs from start to finish, including plenty of as-yet-unheard new material from the Stoke producer, it's been racking up the playcount with us over the last week already.

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

The Warehouse Project has risen over the last six years to near-legendary status. Beginning in an old Boddingtons Brewery in Strangeways, before moving to the otherworldly underground car park space beneath Manchester's main train station and then, in Easter of this year, to the cavernous Victoria Warehouse in Trafford Park, the Project is seen as not just a series of top lineups but also as an experience in itself. It's difficult to talk about clubbing in Manchester without mentioning the Hacienda, and many perceive the yearly 12-week runs of WHP events to be an extension of that vibrancy and creativity that first put The Rainy City's dance music scene on the map.

And yet another staple of Manchester's ever-bristling nightlife is APE; a name synonymous with big raves, eclectic lineups and huge parties hosted at the Warehouse Project. This year's seventh birthday celebrations are no different, and that online tickets for the event sold out more than a week in advance is testament to both the quality of the music on offer and to APE's reputation when it comes to throwing a party. This Saturday's lineup mixes iconic performers across a range of styles, such as Sir David Rodigan MBE, Benga, Shy FX, Jackmaster, DOOM, The Bug, Andy C and DJ EZ, with some of the newer breed of talent, including Deadboy and Redinho, and is set to be an all-encompassing route through the realm of soundsystem and rave culture.

With all this on offer, we've hooked up with APE and the Warehouse Project to offer the chance for two winners to bag plus-one guestlist entry to this sold-out event as well as an APE hoody to pull up over your head for the cab-ride home. To enter, just send your answer to this simple question to hedmuk@gmail.com with the subject 'APE Competition':

In what year was the very first Warehouse Project event?

The competition will close on Friday the 12th of October, on which date two winners will be chosen by an independent third party, announced on Facebook and Twitter and notified via email. For more information on the event, including the full lineup and more information about the artists performing on the night, head over to the event profile page at the WHP website here.

Monday, 1 October 2012

An artist whom we featured way back in January of 2011, Myrkur remains as one of the more forward-thinking producers to have come out of the Netherlands in recent years. Letting this one go as a free download after hitting 300 followers on his Facebook Page, it comes after something of a quiet spell for the promising young Dutchman. It is accompanied, however, by the news of a forthcoming twelve inch on Dubsludge Records as well as signs of more recent activity on his Soundcloud page. 'Void' itself is a moody stepper, drenched with the sort of lush atmospherics which typify Myrkur's beats.